Cultivating high-quality software talent to boost rapid development of software industry through partnership with leading universities in China
Background
The software industry is developing very quickly in China. It is estimated that the domestic sales of software developed by China software companies will reach US$143 billion in 2010, and the software export is growing 28 percent, according to the National Eleventh Five-year plan (2005 to 2010). Universities in China need to cultivate thousands of talented software professionals to meet the demands of the rapidly developing market. Universities face the challenge of quickly accumulating sufficient experience in new technologies and software engineering methodology so that they can train the students. Software engineering is becoming one of the most popular fields of education in China.
Microsoft engineers have valuable experience in developing professional software products for mainstream technologies. Microsoft engineers have the knowledge and experience that universities need to train students as software professionals.
The Software Engineering Curriculum Program is building a cooperative model with key universities in the area of software engineering. Through the cooperation, the universities benefit by receiving training on the newest Microsoft technologies and methodologies of developing actual software products. The curriculum and courses that are based on Microsoft technologies and methodologies will provide a long-term benefit to both universities and industry.
In recent years, Microsoft has partnered with pioneer universities to roll out the Software Engineering Curriculum Program and has received strong support from the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) to initiate the MOE-Microsoft Elite Course on Software Engineering. The pioneer universities will share their courses with other universities throughout China through Web sites and teaching seminars. In the future, a Software Engineering Teaching Resource Kit will be developed to share with universities, and teachers will be invited to attend faculty training or theme workshops.
MOE-Microsoft Elite Course on Software Engineering Theme
Since 2006, Software Engineering has been the key theme in MOE-Microsoft Elite Course Program. The first awarded universities are University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU), and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). The three universities put a unified effort to build a Software Engineering Theme Web site as a platform to share best practices and build a community.
Seven course development projects have been approved and initiated by MOE-Microsoft Elite Course on Software Engineering for the second group this year. The seven awarded universities' Web sites are listed in the following table.
|
University |
Course |
Web site |
|
Hunan University |
Case-Based Software Engineering |
|
|
Peking University |
Microsoft Software Implementation Technology |
http://www.ss.pku.edu.cn/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=3&id=24&Itemid=296 |
|
Nanjing University |
Software Engineering Course Practice |
|
|
Beijing Institute |
Applied Software Engineering |
|
|
Baihang University |
Case-Based Software Engineering |
|
|
Northeast University |
Introduction to Software Engineering |
|
|
Tianjin University |
Case-Based Software Engineering |
Innovation Software Engineering Courses
Microsoft Software Implementation Technology Course, Peking University
The Microsoft Software Implementation Technology course became available to students at School of Software and Microelectronic, Peking University, in 2002. The course provides a series of lectures on topics such as Software Life Cycle, Project Management, Debugging Technology, Testing, and Search Engine.
The students can receive firsthand experience in a Mini-project Camp, a new element of the event that is designed to improve students’ practical capabilities. The instructors are senior engineers and program managers from Microsoft with rich experience in project management, development, and testing.
Learning by Doing Course Group, Hunan University
Learning by Doing Course Group was developed at Hunan University. Case-based Software Engineering is one of the Learning by Doing practices. The course has been available to students in the Software School since 2004. During the course, students acquire knowledge about Software Requirements Analysis, Software Engineering, Web Applications, and Program Design. Students apply this knowledge through a hands-on project on which they work as a project team with real roles, such as program manager, developer, and tester.
Software Engineering Case Base Platform, Beihang University
A database of software engineering cases will be built in Beihang University, based on Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. Microsoft Team Foundation Server will be used to track all processes of each case and to reproduce the development process. Teachers could use this case database for teaching and can enrich the database by developing new cases in the Team Foundation Server. The database will grow through the joint effort of the community.
Software Testing Methodology Course, Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications
On 28 April 2008, the Software Testing Methodology Course Opening Ceremony was held in Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications (BUPT). Through résumé selection, 40 students are selected to attend this course out of 300 applicants. This course is delivered by an engineering team from Microsoft.
.NET Framework and Web Services Technologies Course, Shanghai Jiaotong University
This year, engineers from Microsoft STB China were invited to deliver lectures and review lab exercises in the course of .NET Framework and Web Services Technologies at the Computer Science and Engineering Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU). The engineers introduce advanced Microsoft technologies and provide technical consultancy to the faculty and students. The course collaboration is expected to continue later this year with additional lectures, while STB China engineers begin work on the textbook and lab manual.
Looking Toward the Future
Microsoft has been working with many of our partners in China to promote software engineering processes and practices, in order to help the software development community in China gain skills and insights in software development. Microsoft is working with business organizations in China to share the knowledge and insights we have gained through our own product development efforts with the Chinese development community. While the Software Engineering program at Microsoft Research Asia University Relations is focused on helping the academic community, it is just one of many efforts to share our software engineering knowledge with China. Microsoft also has software engineering programs specifically designed for developers, architects, and IT professionals. For more details on those programs, please visit www.microsoft.com/China.
Software engineering is constantly evolving and progressing—and so are the software engineering practices that Microsoft uses for its own product development. Microsoft software engineering processes, practices, and models have been evolving, such as the adoption of latest Agile/Scrum/TDD models in the latest MSF models that were used in the past university trainings in China. In the future, Microsoft Research Asia University Relations will continue to share with our university partners the latest and best software engineering practices.
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